By: Dana Phillips

DACA protestors, photo via Reuters — DACA protestors, photo via *Reuters*

This Monday, the Supreme Court announced that it will not hear the Trump administration's challenge to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals "DACA" program. This serves as a huge blow to the Trump administration that is still trying to argue that DACA is unconstitutional. This follows the several gridlocks Congress has recently faced, about how to fix the proposed injunctions for this program.

The case in question that was denied was The United States Department of Homeland Security vs. Regents of the University of California. The Trump Administration wanted the courts to hear an appeal directly from a trial court decision reinstating DACA. Such decisions which are known as a “petition for writ of certiorari before judgment” are almost never granted by the Supreme Court.

This Monday was no exception, and the case must first be heard by lower courts before the Supreme Court will review the case. The request for the Supreme court to jump ahead of the 9th circuit is rare which is why it was rejected. This means that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will continue to review the case, alleviating the pressure on Congress to make a rushed legislative decision.

The Supreme Court decision comes just a week before the March 5th deadline set by Trump to enact legislation to replace DACA. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case, which proves that this Supreme court is not willing to bend rules for this administration. The case has been unsuccessfully in Congress so it will have to continue review in appeal courts in order for the process to be constitutional. Many congressional members believe it will not be finished going through lower courts until May.

DACA was introduced during the Obama administration in order to allow thousands of undocumented immigrants, who came to the United States as children to work, attend school and remain in the country. In exchange, for allowing prior DACA recipients and dreamers to remain in the country the Trump administration wants a proposed 25 million dollars for a Mexican border wall, and changes to two immigration policies. If courts in California and New York had not rejected the Trump administration orders, Dreamers may have already lost most if not all of their benefits.

Upwards of 20,000 DACA recipients have already lost their benefits, having failed to renew their status in the allotted month given after the September announcement.The injunction being opposed allows for those people who did not renew their status the ability to apply for a two-year renewal permit. However, the junction does not apply to recipients who have not aged into DACA leaving the youngest dreamers subject to deportation. This leaves DACA recipients without the proper documentation to attend school or work.The Obama administrations whole reasoning for the bill was to give dreamers the chance to attend school and work so they could be working and contributing citizens. T

heodore Boutrous Jr, a member of the legal team representing the six DACA students in California in the case stated that "The Dreamers have relied on DACA to make decisions about their education, jobs, and families and to make valuable contributions to society as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and members of the military.” Butrous as well as other Congressional members are happy the Supreme Court is requiring for the case to make its way all the way through the lower courts. Many members of Congress in support of the DACA program hope for a bill that will extend DACA recipients rights for three to four years in hopes of a new immigration program to be introduced.